Egyptian researchers discover 41 million year old primeval whale

Paleontologists in Egypt have discovered remains of an extinct whale species that lived 41 million years ago. The research team named the previously unknown species Tutcetus rayanensis, after the legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun and the Wadi El-Rajan shrine in the Fayum oasis where the specimen was found.

With an estimated length of 2.5 meters and an estimated body weight of 187 kilograms, Tutcetus is the smallest species in the family of the extinct Basilosauridae.

Researcher Hescham Sallam of the American University of Cairo (AUC) spoke of a “remarkable discovery” that documents one of the first stages of the transition to an exclusively aquatic life. The basilosaurids had “evolved fish-like features”, such as a streamlined body, swimming fins and flukes.

They were also the last whales with hind legs still recognizable as “legs,” Sallam said in a statement released by the AUC on Thursday. These were no longer used for running, “but possibly for mating”.

In the Fajum Basin, about 150 kilometers southwest of Cairo, lies the so-called Valley of the Whales, part of the Unesco World Heritage. Hundreds of fossils of some of the oldest whale species have been found here. The area of ​​Northern Egypt was under a tropical sea during the Eocene 56 to 34 million years ago. (sda/afp)